ON THE SONICS: New leaders of the Sonics are searching for old-school values

Howard Schultz has no idea what he's getting into. Nate McMillan is just starting to figure it out.

This tag-team is entrusted with the future of the Seattle Super-Sonics. Owner and coach, two idealistic souls who believe in team-work and hard work and more work.

Boy, are they in for a rude awakening.

Look to Los Angeles, where Shaq and Kobe can't get along even in the wake of a world championship.

Look to Denver, where the entire team of Nuggets boycotted practice earlier this season because they were upset with coach Dan Issel.

Look to Milwaukee, where coach George Karl continued to lament the individualistic ways of his Bucks' team that has won 12 of its last 16 games.

Heck, look right here in Seattle where the star point guard feuded with the former head coach in such public fashion and the U.S. Olympian at power forward laid down so easily that the coach got fired just 15 games into the season.

This isn't Nirvana that Schultz bought into this week. It's the NBA.

The new man wants to rekindle the old magic. He speaks fondly of the New York Knicks of his youth, the teams of Walt Frazier and Willis Reed, Dave DeBusschere and Bill Bradley. He recalls how those Knicks ran the court and "the ball never touched the floor."

McMillan understands that era. He understands the desire to bring it back. These two are kindred spirits, searching for the lost art of team basketball.

McMillan is a month into his first job as a head coach at any level.

And one of his first lessons is that it's hard finding guys like him.

Guys who put team first. Guys who don't worry about any statistic other than their team's final score and the win-loss record.

"I'm looking at myself now and saying, 'I was better than I thought,' " said the man whose number is retired in the KeyArena rafters.

What he's saying is that as a coach, you appreciate more and more the kind of players who are coming around less and less.

"It does take certain players," McMillan said. "And if you can't compel them, then you've got to find them. Because you can have talent, but if that talent is more concerned about anything other than the team, it won't work."

Karl loved coaching McMillan. He marveled at the rarely talked about "plus-minus" statistic of McMillan, the simple figure that measures how many more - or less - points your team scores than your opponent while you're on the floor.

McMillan always ranked as the Sonics' leader in plus-minus. He got it done. He did what it took to make teammates better. When he was on the court, good things happened.

Karl always wondered why there weren't more Nate McMillans, too. Now, Karl is in Milwaukee, railing about the same concerns that drove him crazy in the Key.

"We (coaches) get blamed, but we have to manage the work ethic that we get," Karl told reporters in Milwaukee this week. "It's the players' direction, their individuality, their selfish nature toward the team, their inability to commit and dedicate."

Now comes Schultz, who thinks and talks much like Karl and McMillan. He refers to the "soul" of the game, the feeling of a true team. His basketball bible is Bill Bradley's book, "Values of the Game."

He has written his own biography on building the Starbucks empire, titled "Pour Your Heart Into It."

He addressed the Sonics players for the first time Friday, telling them some of the same things he told McMillan in their first meeting just prior to Thursday's sale.

"Listening to his story, he's very similar to me," McMillan said. "We didn't consider ourselves poor, but we didn't have silver spoons in our mouths. Nobody expected him to own one of the top corporations in the world. And nobody expected me to be the head coach of the Seattle SuperSonics.

"You've done what it takes to be successful, which is what I got from Howard, and you appreciate the reward. And when things aren't done right, it really gets up under your skin."

McMillan walked out of his first meeting with Schultz, turned to associate head coach Dwane Casey, and said, 'We're talking about the exact same thing that has been missing and needs to come back.' "

Now the question is whether that mission is possible.

Hard knowing. But one thing is certain. At least they hold a higher standard, a desire to push for perfection. A willingness to take the tougher path in an effort to find the maximum reward.

Wish them luck. Their journey together has just begun.

Greg Johns is a columnist for the Eastside Journal in Bellevue.

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